Sunday, 15 July 2012

Flags is another of those themes where I was sure I had plenty of suitable stamps, but to my surprise it actually took quite a lot of looking to find something to post for this week's Sunday Stamps. The three stamps below were issued in 1973 to commemorate Britain's entry into the European Community. The image of the Union Jack flag portrayed as a piece of a tightly fitting jigsaw puzzle is perhaps showing the test of time some 40 years later.

European Communities, c.1973

What I never knew before was that Great Britain tried to join back in 1960 but the application was vetoed by the then French President, Charles de Gaulle, who was concerned about the US influence.

Saturday, 14 July 2012

I can't remember if I have shared these carte de visite before, but they seem to fit well with this week's Sepia Saturday theme. Not sure about a date, but I would guess these go back to the early 1900's. The child in the first CDV looks quite alert and potentially mischevious, whereas the one in the second CDV does not look at all happy, with a stuck out lower lip.

Sunday, 8 July 2012

I found lots of inspiration for this weeks Sunday Stamps theme of yellow in my stamp collection, but eventually decided on this one. It's a yellow 4d stamp, showing the Jodrell Bank telescope, and was issued in September 1966.

4d Jodrell Bank

The stamp was issued in a set of four stamps commemorating British Technology. I only have two of the set, and if you'll all forgive me straying off theme slightly, I also wanted to share the second stamp in the set, which is an orange 6d stamp showing various British cars, including probably my favourite car of all time, the e-type Jaguar, as driven by Mrs Peel in the Avengers. The other two stamps in the series were a 1s 3d Hovercraft stamp, and a 1s 6d Nuclear Power stamp. Incidentally, the 6d cars stamp is featured in Simon Garfield's book The Error World: An Affair With Stamps where he writes about a rare, errored, version of the stamp which only included the e-type jaguar and not the three minis.

Saturday, 7 July 2012

I'm a bit late this week with my submission to Postcard Friendship Friday as I've been travelling with work and only just returned from India this morning. An enjoyable trip but not quite as exotic as it might first sound as it was mainly a short business trip, but fun nevertheless. However when I saw this week's postcard, I instantly knew the vintage postcard I would share ... seems to fit quite nicely with Beth's postcard and her thoughts about friendship. The postcard dates back to 1909 and the verse reads ...

Friends are treasures, old or new,Priceless if they are only true,Those who have them bear in mind,In this world they're hard to find.

Sunday, 1 July 2012

I wasn't quite sure where to go for this week's Sunday Stamps theme of Scenic Natural Areas but I eventually decided on this first day cover from June 1981 which shows various National Trust locations in the UK. The locations from left to right are:

St. Kilda, Scotland

Giant's Causeway, Northern Ireland

Stackpole Head, Wales

Derwentwater, England

Glenfinnan, Scotland

The National Trusts, first day cover, June 1981

I am familiar with all of these places except St. Kilda, which I had heard of but knew very little about. It was populated until 1930, but numbers were typically between 100 and 200. It was eventually evacuated for a number of reasons, some accounts say voluntarily, others say forcibly. With book titles like The Truth about St. Kilda it certainly suggests this was not as amicable as other accounts would make out. It now belongs to the National Trust for Scotland, and in 1986 became a World Hertiage site. More information about this incredible story can be found in these books.

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About Me

Having grown up in one of the London suburbs, I'm interested in John Betjeman, J.G.Ballard, London suburbs, Avengerland (Borehamwood area where the classic 1960's and 1970's TV shows were filmed). More recently I have become interested in Psychogeography and Urban, Suburban and Coastal Wandering, which is where most of the subject matter in this blog now comes from.

I'm also an avid music listener and collector since the late 1970's. I like all sorts of genres ... punk, post-punk, new wave, industrial, ambient, krautrock, alternative, indie, goth ... naturally I have quite a few items I no longer need in physical format, so here's a link to my records and CDs for sale

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